Bug 506381 - Flawed logrotate method
Summary: Flawed logrotate method
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: httpd
Version: 11
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Joe Orton
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2009-06-17 02:20 UTC by JW
Modified: 2010-06-28 13:04 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2010-06-28 13:04:47 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description JW 2009-06-17 02:20:14 UTC
Description of problem:
The installed logrotate entry (/etc/logrotate.d/httpd) can result in httpd writing to deleted log file with subsequent log entries being lost.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
httpd-2.2.11-8

How reproducible:
Difficult because can depend on how busy httpd is.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. wait for logrotate to rotate httpd log files
2. run: lsof -p`cat /var/run/httpd.pid`
  
Actual results:
Depending on unknown circumstances one might observer that httpd ends up still writing to deleted log files.  Consequently log entries will be lost. This is especially true if logrotate compresses the rotated files.

Expected results:
No log entries should be lost.

Additional info:
If one reads the apache manual (logs.html#rotation) one will learn that the proper way to rotate logs is to rename the logs, invoke "apachectl graceful" then sleep for a while, then compress the files. So ideally the logrotate script should appear something like this:

/var/log/http/*log {
    missingok
    notifempty
    sharedscripts
    delaycompress
    postrotate
        /sbin/service httpd graceful
    endscript
}

The important line is the "delaycompress".  This means that the active log file will be renamed (and httpd might continue writing to it for some time) but no log entries will be lost.  The renamed log file will get compressed next invocation of logrotate by which time httpd will have completely switched over to the new log files.

Additionally it would be nice if the logrotate entry didn't use 'kill -HUP' but instead used existing /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd script so that arcane application control methods are all confined to one place. However using "apache -k" or apachectl are not half as bad as using kill (and depending on assumptions about where httpd's pid can be located).

Comment 1 Joe Orton 2009-08-18 11:55:53 UTC
Thanks a lot for the report and analysis!  I've committed this change.

Comment 2 Bug Zapper 2010-04-27 15:00:13 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 11 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 11.  It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained.  At that time
this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 
'version' of '11'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 11's end of life.

Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that 
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Comment 3 Bug Zapper 2010-06-28 13:04:47 UTC
Fedora 11 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2010-06-25. Fedora 11 is 
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further 
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of 
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.


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